This is a pretty stark image I took a few days ago on Trail Creek Road not far from HWY 93. The sheer openness and the single set of tire tracks and the spring-like color in the sage caught my eye.
Late Winter Storm. Trail Creek Road, Idaho
Roughly 12 miles south of the above Trail Creek Road image, I took the shot below as the storm was starting to break. It's a similar horizon below but it has a fence line and telephone poles and a lack of snow on the ground...
Old Chilly Road. March. Idaho
The Sun Valley area received about 7 new inches of much needed snow yesterday and I drove to Mackay. Below is an image I took, on my way home, in the late afternoon as the storm was starting to break. It was around 4 pm and I don't know if I can say I have ever seen more fish rising on this section of Silver Creek other than during brown drakes in early June. It was midge madness. Unfortunately fishing is closed at the moment on Silver Creek.
March Storm. Silver Creek, Idaho
I drove over to the Big Lost River and Mackay yesterday. Drove north of Mackay too. By the Mackay Reservoir where there were still ice fishing huts and up to the East Fork of The Lost where there was about 5 inches of new snow and it was snowing hard and the visibility was maybe 500 feet.
Center Pivot & Desert. Idaho
Mackay Reservoir Ice Fishing Huts. Idaho
Upper Big Lost River Watershed. Idaho
Here are a few of the images I converted to black and white from a recent trip to an Idaho Junkyard.
Through The Windshield. A junkyard perspective
Cars & Desert
Junkyard Road
OK..., here are a few more abstracts. These images are of old rusty cars found at a junkyard. I originally thought most of my images from this shoot would be converted to black and white. I converted a few to black and white, but here are more in color:
Sea From Above. Abstract
Islands. Abstract
Junkyard Abstract IV
Here are two abstracts taken today at a junkyard.
Idaho Landscape Abstract I
Idaho Landscape Abstract II
Below is an image taken yesterday of Stocker Road near the Silver Creek Preserve. It was midge madness on Silver Creek yesterday from Picabo all the way through the Nature Conservancy. Unfortunately Silver Creek--with the exception of a tiny section in the desert--is closed.
Stocker Road. March
Here are two images taken of the same fire ring from almost the same spot using two different--albeit close--focal lengths. The color image portion of the diptych taken in the summer inspired me to start a project I call, Ordinary Landscapes. The location is Summit Creek, Idaho. The tracks going through the winter image are of coyotes.
Ordinary Landscape Diptych
Here's an image of a tilled field near Picabo, Idaho taken a couple of days ago. I converted the image from RAW to black and white in Photoshop CS6. I am including in this post a low-resolution image of the RAW file straight from the camera. Without making many changes/edits in Photoshop, you can see the latitude in shooting RAW--getting details out of the very bright/overexposed areas--and the enormous difference between the blah RAW image and the edited black and white image.
I also used the tilt function of the Nikon 24 pc-e lens to get the look of unlimited depth of field. I used--it's becoming a kinda fun term to use--the Scheimpflug Principle. The link takes you to The Luminous Landscape page for a good explanation...
Crops Rows In Winter. Picabo, Idaho
Here's the low-resolution file of the RAW image straight from the camera:
RAW image straight from the camera.
Two images and two seasons. Early summer and late winter. The same oxbow split in half. Two focal lengths. Silver Creek's East Oxbow:
Two Seasons. Diptych. Silver Creek, Idaho
I shot over to the South Fork of The Boise yesterday and it dawned on me I hadn't fished it for at least two years. It's always a pleasure fishing a river/stream I don't know every single bend, pocket, riffle, etc. Didn't see many fish on the surface. In fact only saw fish rising in one spot. There were a good number of midges though and the nymphing was decent. The image below is of Keith getting in a little streamer time before the sun hit the water.
A winter morning on a side channel of the South Fork of The Boise River.
Here's a pano taken yesterday at Silver Creek. The clouds that came in ended up providing about 3 new inches of snow. The pano below is comprised of 7 images and the resolution is 33.7 megapixels. It was shot with the Nikon D3s & Nikon 50mm ƒ1.8 lens. Click on the image to see it larger.
East Oxbow Pano. Silver Creek, Idaho. February, 2013
Silver Creek, Idaho. Winter
I love shooting from this particular spot on Silver Creek. The image above was shot with the Nikon 50mm ƒ1.8 lens and not a tilt/shift lens. I just upgraded from Adobe's CS5 to CS6 and one of the major new additions is a set of 3 blur filters including tilt/shift. While I do own and use Nikon's 24mm pc-e (tilt/shift) lens, this new set of filters is a lot of fun to play with.
If we didn't have calendars it would be hard to tell it's February here. The snowpack at lower elevations has dwindled. I fished Silver Creek today and it felt like a raw early April afternoon. Cumulus clouds pushed easterly and the wind scoured the thawing ground. Red-Winged Blackbirds by the dozens scurried about nervously in flocks near the willows. There were midges though despite the wind and a fish here and there thought it a good idea to steel one from the surface. I threw streamers and it was quite good. The 28th of February is the final day of the season on Silver Creek below the HGWY 20 Bridge.
Silver Creek. Late February. 2013
Summit Creek Campground & Coyote Tracks
Here are two images from last July that made it past my initial look. If you recall, it was smoky here last summer and on this particular night the smoke had mainly gone west and there was just a hint hanging in the atmosphere making the sky and clouds more palpable than normal and dust hung in the air like helium inflated dandelion seeds and there wasn't a lick of wind and a few fishermen made their way through the tall grass to a bend on the creek.
Silver Creek Preserve. Oxbow.
Stocker Road. Late July Evening.
The Richfield Canal is a major diversion that begins at a large headgate about 4 miles below Magic Reservoir in Idaho. During the agricultural season it swells with water and for the rest of the year it is essentially dry. When the water is flowing there are also fish that get through the headgates. Due to the large volume of water the Richfield Canal calls for during the growing season, the Big Wood River below the diversion is often dewatered.
Richfield Canal. Winter
Ice & Water. Richfield Canal
Dead Trout. Richfield Canal
A personal project of mine has been working on what I have titled Ordinary Landscapes. So, just what is the criteria for an "Ordinary Landscape"? It's simple: It is taking something mundane or common or better yet, ordinary, and transforming that lack of distinctiveness into something simply extraordinary. As it is, many of my Ordinary Landscape images to date have been landscapes often with a subtle touch of the human element in and around where I live in Idaho, but really they can be of anything. Here are two recent Ordinary Landscapes:
Wind Break. Picabo, Idaho
Aspen. May Ranch. Silver Creek Preserve, Idaho
Here are a few images I shot last night from Galena Summit. There was fortunately a bit of an inversion as the temp on top was 15˚ and it was -1˚ on the bottom. With the exception of the star trails image, I shot at 12,800 iso at ƒ2.8 for 30 seconds.
Conifers & Milky Way. Galena Summit, Idaho
Star Trails & HWY 75. Galena Summit, Idaho
Milky Way From Galena Summit, Idaho.
Here's a pano I shot last spring but never got to it. Silver Creek Preserve and Thunderstorm. It's a 3 image pano taken with the Nikon 24 pc-e lens.
Silver Creek Preserve Oxbow & Storm
I drove down to Silver Creek yesterday to take a look at a bunch of things including the water clarity and ice factor on Silver Creek near Picabo. The wind blew out of the east with high clouds. Temps were right around 32˚ and the dirt roads were still frozen enough so as not to become a muddy mess. The water clarity is good with some siltation. Ice is limited to the banks. The more off color it gets the better the streamer fishing seems to be. Too windy to notice any midges. Silver Creek downstream of HWY 20 stays open through February.
Aspen. May Ranch portion of the Silver Creek Preserve.
Crop Rows near Picabo, Idaho. February.